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It was mentioned to a certain wise man that so-and-so had gathered [a great deal of] wealth. He asked, “Did he also gather periods of time in which to spend it in?” When he received the response, “No,” he said, “He hasn’t gathered anything.” (Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Dhamm al-Jah wal-Mal, Dar Ibn al-Jawzi, 1995)
Prehand apologies for my ignorance ,but I couldn`t understand this_ at all.Is this meant to imply that if one is earning and not spending it then this is wrong.Is it “mandatory” to spend?What if someone is trying to accumulate wealth [for a purpose] , and plan to spend it later on?
This is neat — a sunnipath blog 
We can hopefully see that what is being pointed out is the harm of hoarding wealth *for its own sake* without any plans of doing good with it.
Think about it, what is the point of wealth if it isn’t used for goodly spending? Is money useful in and of itself? Is it a source of security? If so, then it is in actuality a harm, as one’s reliance should be in Allah Most High alone and not in asbab. That is what money is, - it is simply a means, a medicine of the many medicines in this world, insha Allah. Does not Allah say “Spend O Son of Adam, and I shall spend on you”?
On a related note, Shaykh Hamza Yusuf often mentions the view that one’s provision is what one actually consumes in this life, as for what one doesn’t consume, is left for his heirs (not that that’s a bad thing with the proper intentions and arrangements insha Allah).
So we are not to hoard wealth because its useless to us that way and to use it in some beneficial purpose?
Saving what you earn is also a wise doing. The idea here: it’s meaningless to spend large part of someone’s life in collecting a large fortune just to recognize at the end that what remains in life wouldn’t be enough to spend this fortune in the “right manner”.
Although some rich people know how to spend (or spoil) their wealth in many ways pretending they’re having cool time (with no true friends!), and some go to the other extreme and donate all their fortune to a specific group of people without focusing much on who’s most in need. Anyhow, the way to spend a fortune needs a separate discussion I guess.
The merit of the commentary is: life has so many joys and happiness that’s doesn’t require money, so living JUST to collect money is waste of time. Simply, choose happiness and you’ll find yourself the most pleased person on earth. Of course, for someone to achieve such life might require a major or minor change in his/her convictions and principles - depending on the geographical location
Jazakum Allah Khair for the explanation , everyone.
I believe the main focus of the wise man’s words were to emphasise time. We can spend ‘our’ time doing many different things and since our time is limited; spending it to accumulate wealth at the expense of the akhira will see us as losers, in contrast to spending our time living by Islam.
bottom line: use your time wisely and not with your head in the ground to realise later that there is no time left to do what you should have.
Shaykh Hamza has posted a new blog post with further commentary. You can read it here:
[…] My last post generated some interesting discussion on the meaning of the wise man’s words. A number of visitors did an excellent job explaining what the wise man was trying to say. I thought I’d wrap up the comments with a comment of my own, just to conclude the discussion. […]
[…] A wise man’s commentary on the rat-race of modern life - by Hamza Karamali […]